#the Washington Post

[contemplatingoutlander]

Autocrats roll back rights and rule of law — and cite Trump’s example

Trump’s statements, policies and actions are providing cover for attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, freedom of expression and the rule of law around the world.

The new Trump administration "is bringing together autocrats and would-be autocrats around the world," said Rosa Balfour, director of Carnegie Europe. "What they share is a radical right agenda, and they are much more connected in their policies and goals than we have been assuming." Cuts at USAID have eliminated funding for nongovernmental organizations that promoted the rule of law in countries where democracy is under attack, she said. Meanwhile, the administration’s actions at home — rolling back protections for minorities, the mass deportation of migrants outside normal processes, attacks on judges who stand in the way... she said, signal a new era in which the United States is no longer seen as a global defender of liberal democracy. [color emphasis added]

Congratulations MAGA voters! Under Trump's leadership, the U.S. has gone from being the "leader of the free world" to the "leader of the axis of evil."

Dr. Evil would be pleased.

This is a gift 🎁 link so there is no paywall. Below are some excerpts.

Under Hungary’s antigay “propaganda” law, bookstores were fined for selling LGBTQ+ themed tomes without sealed plastic wrappers and a museum director was fired for allowing minors into an exhibit with images of same-sex couples. But the autocratic government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban stopped short of targeting the community’s premier event: the annual Pride parade. What changed? According to Orban, it was the return to the White House of President Donald Trump. Gergely Gulyas, Orban’s chief of staff, told journalists that the change in administrations in Washington had lifted the “American boot” off the chest of the Hungarian government, making it easier “to breathe.” [...] Pride “shouldn’t have existed earlier, but it did, because the U.S. Ambassador led the march, which clearly showed that the world’s great powers supported it,” Orban said last month. “But now the world has changed, and the Americans have called these types of ambassadors back home. … It’s clear that [Pride] won’t have international protection.” The emboldened Orban is not alone. As Trump upends democratic norms at home, his statements, policies and actions are providing cover for a fresh chill on freedom of expression, democracy, the rule of law and LGBTQ+ rights for autocrats around the world — some of whom are giving him credit. [emphasis added]

[samreich]

incredibly moving feature on the great ally beardsley in the washington post

link to article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/31/dungeons-dragons-anniversary-game/

[lisamarie-vee]

[retropopcult]

All The President's Men (1976)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

More “obeying in advance” by the Washington Post

I haven’t referred or cited to the Washington Post since Jeff Bezos ordered the editorial board not to endorse Kamala Harris for president. I sometimes wonder whether that was the right decision. Today, it became clear it was.

Editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes just published an article on Substack entitled, Why I'm quitting the Washington Post. Telnaes explains that she prepared an editorial cartoon that showed billionaires bowing in supplication to Trump. The cartoon is in the linked article. As explained by Telnaes,

The group in the cartoon included Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/AI CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner.

Telnaes explains,

For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job [publishing the cartoon]. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, “Democracy dies in darkness”.

Ann Telnaes deserves our respect and admiration for her courage. And the ongoing disgrace at WaPo should cause all self-respecting journalists and columnists to follow Ann Telnaes’s example.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Margaret Sullivan at American Crisis:

It takes a lot these days to stand up for one’s principles. The retaliation from Trump World is often swift and brutal. But that’s what the Associated Press is doing right now, and as every day goes by — with more retribution, more threats and more self-protective silence — the more inspiring and unusual it looks. I already had a soft spot in my heart for Julie Pace, the top editor of the global news organization. She grew up in my hometown of Buffalo; and more importantly, she’s always struck me as a news leader with integrity, good judgment and a moral compass — not exactly universal qualities. Now I’m even more impressed as the AP has stuck to its guns under attack from the Trump White House. When Trump unilaterally decided that the Gulf of Mexico would henceforth be known as the Gulf of America, a lot of news organizations and other institutions — including Google and Apple — simply went along. The AP, because it has a vast international audience, declined to do so. In their stories, at least for the first reference, they continue to use Gulf of Mexico, while acknowledging the Trump preference when appropriate. They chose not to update their style book, which many journalists use as a kind of professional Bible, to accommodate the change. They did this not to pick a fight with the president, but for solid reasons having to do with serving their audience.

Retribution from the White House came swiftly. AP reporters and photographers now are denied access to White House briefings and no longer allowed to travel with the president. In some sense, these journalists can no longer do their jobs as well. It would have been easy enough for the AP to buckle — to just start doing Trump’s bidding, and keep their access. Instead, the AP is suing the White House on First Amendment and due process grounds. Other news organizations and Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute are showing support with legal filings.

Happy to see the AP not fold to Donald Trump’s grossly insane “Gulf of America” edict that too many outlets and map makers decided to follow. As a result, the AP got banned from being in the White House briefings and no longer allowed to travel alongside the Press Corps with the “President.”

[contemplatingoutlander]

It has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president

Isn’t this what a newspaper is supposed to do?

I love that The Washington Post satirist Alexandra Petri took it upon herself to endorse Harris for her paper after Bezos pulled the plug on the editorial board doing so. This is a gift🎁link, so feel free to read the entire article. Below are some excerpts:

The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.) We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those “roots,” I’m told! Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king! [...] But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them. Let me tell you something. I am having a baby (It’s a boy!), and he is expected on Jan. 6, 2025 (It’s a … Proud Boy?). This is either slightly funny or not at all funny.  [...] Well, that world [the baby will be born into] will look very different, depending on the outcome of November’s election, and I care which world my kid gets born into. I also live here myself. And I happen to care about the people who are already here, in this world. Come to think of it, I have a lot of reasons for caring how the election goes. I think it should be obvious that this is not an election for sitting out. The case for Donald Trump is “I erroneously think the economy used to be better? I know that he has made many ominous-sounding threats about mass deportations, going after his political enemies, shutting down the speech of those who disagree with him (especially media outlets), and that he wants to make things worse for almost every category of person — people with wombs, immigrants, transgender people, journalists, protesters, people of color — but … maybe he’ll forget.” “But maybe he’ll forget” is not enough to hang a country on! [...] I’m just a humor columnist. I only know what’s happening because our actual journalists are out there reporting, knowing that their editors have their backs, that there’s no one too powerful to report on, that we would never pull a punch out of fear. That’s what our readers deserve and expect: that we are saying what we really think, reporting what we really see; that if we think Trump should not return to the White House and Harris would make a fine president, we’re going to be able to say so. That’s why I, the humor columnist, am endorsing Kamala Harris by myself! [color/ emphasis added]

How far The Washington Post has fallen into the "darkness" it used to work so hard to ward off to help keep our democracy alive.

[edited]

[i-am-aprl]

✍️ George Orwell wrote 70 years ago that modern political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.

When it comes to the media’s coverage of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, unfortunately there is a lot of modern political language masquerading as journalism aimed to perpetuate the status quo.

The language is designed to rob the oppressed of their very struggle for dignity.

Having worked with many of these news organizations, I know this pattern all too well, a pattern that dates back decades, and that aims to dehumanize Palestinians and absolve Israel of any accountability for the countless crimes they commit on a daily basis.

These news organizations intentionally obfuscate facts and erase fundamental context to shield Israel from facing consequences for the crimes of collective punishment, ethnic-cleansing, apartheid and occupation, protecting the racist and rogue zionist state.

Their complicity is as obscene as it is obvious and I can assure you that they know exactly what they are doing.

[indelicateink]

Jeff Bezos blocked The Washington Post from endorsing Kamala Harris for president.

Over 200,000 subscribers have dropped their subscription, and the number is growing.

“Earlier this year, Lewis, the Post publisher, had touted the paper's net gain of 4,000 subscribers as noteworthy.”

[mrskennedy]

Jackie Onassis and her close friend and head of the Washington Post, Katherine Graham photographed at Martha’s Vineyard. 1974.

[macmanx]

"Her principled resignation illustrates that while the pen is mightier than the sword, political cowardice once again eclipses journalistic integrity at The Washington Post."

[political-us]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/12/social-security-phone-doge-elderly-disabled/

[merv606]

[2bpoliticallycurious]

FINALLY: Trump Is Indicted in Documents Case

Thank goodness for Jack Smith! Finally, Trump might be brought to justice!

According to The New York Times:

Trump is the first former president in U.S. history to face federal charges. The Justice Department took the legally and politically momentous step of lodging federal criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump, multiple people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The charges follow a lengthy investigation of his handling of classified documents that he took with him upon leaving office and into whether he obstructed the government’s efforts to reclaim them. The indictment, filed in Federal District Court in Miami, is the first time in American history a former president has faced federal charges. [...] Mr. Trump was charged with a total of seven counts, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and an obstruction of justice conspiracy, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday, according to a person close to him and his own post on Truth Social. The indictment, filed by the office of the special counsel Jack Smith, came about two months after local prosecutors in New York filed more than 30 felony charges against Mr. Trump in a case connected to a hush money payment to a porn star in advance of the 2016 election.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Marina Dunbar at The Guardian:

Washington Post associate editor and top political columnist Ruth Marcus is reportedly resigning following the decision by the CEO, Will Lewis, to kill her opinion column critical of the billionaire owner Jeff Bezos’s latest changes to the paper. “It is with great sadness that I submit my resignation as columnist and associate editor of the Washington Post,” Marcus wrote in a letter addressed to Lewis and Bezos and posted on X by a New York Times media reporter. Last month, Bezos announced changes to the opinion section that appeared to more closely align the Post with the political right, saying that only columns that supported “personal liberties and free markets” would henceforth be published. More than 75,000 digital readers of the Post canceled their subscriptions in the 48 hours following Bezos revealing his intentions. David Shipley, the opinions editor, stepped down after failing to dissuade Bezos from implementing these new mandates.

Longtime Washington Post fixture Ruth Marcus quits the paper after over 4 decades of service in various roles for WaPo due to her planned column criticizing Jeff Bezos got spiked.

See Also:

The Present Age (Parker Molloy): Another Dark Day at the Bezos Post: Ruth Marcus Resigns After Censorship

[chernobog13]

What The Washington Post said.